Gifted
by TwilightMus
Summary: There's a new-girl at Sunnydale High who has an uncanny rapport with the Science teacher. But what does Katherine Pryde know about Sunnydale that Buffy Doesn't. Buffy, X-Men, xmen, Shadowcat, Kitty, Willow, x-men.
1. The New Girl

*I don't own Buffy the X-Men or any related characters owned by those who do*

***A/N: The time-line is mid-season 2 of Buffy and the X-Men time-line is based loosely on the movies, i.e. Mutants are widely unknown. Though the characters and their ages may vary quite a bit from those in the films***

***Also a little shout out to theICEBear and Lyee Franklin who wrote Slayer X and The Cairn respectively, and inspired me to write a crossover fic in this Genre... UPDATE PEOPLE***

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Chapter 1: The New Girl - Part 1

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Sunnydale California was a quiet peaceful suburb with a college, cinema, military base, high school, skating rink, television network, night-club, mall, and several dozen graveyards.

The streets filled with the sounds of early suburbia, car engines turning over, alarms screaming their respective alarmees awake, early morning news playing on kitchen televisions as groggy adults desperately turned on coffee pots and waited for the deliciously stimulating fruits of poring water into a machine and hitting a button.

Children came down stairs, ate pop-tarts and waved goodbye to guilty parents racing to get to their cars and beat the surprising amount of traffic to office complexes, art galleries, theatres, ship yards, movie lots, academic institutions or a myriad of construction sites located somewhere downtown. Downtown Sunnydale. Sunnydale the suburb. The suburb with it's own Downtown.

If nothing else the cartography relative to the size of Sunnydale should have tipped anyone interested in moving to this quiet little suburb off, that there was something odd and not so quiet and not so suburban about it. But many people ignored the peculiarity of the cities design when confronted with the ridiculously affordable housing markets, many people like Joyce Summers.

Buffy, a blond, short, pretty, curvy, athletic girl, bounced downstairs wearing a pink ribbed sweater and pale pastel jeans. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice. Looking around to make sure her mom wasn't, she unscrewed the top and gulped down the refreshing liqu...

"Buffy! Use a glass!"came the chiding voice of Joyce Summers from down the hall and quite out of sight.

Buffy pouted, then grabbed a glass and pored herself some more vitamin C before making herself a bowl of cereal she knew she would only eat three bites of.

"I'm gunna be late coming home from the gallary tonight, so I'll leave you some money to buy dinner." said Joyce's voice getting closer, "And by 'dinner' I don't mean pizza. Are we clear young lady?"

Joyce walked into the kitchen, the middle aged woman with curly sandy-blond hair fastened earrings while she hunted around the kitchen for her cup of coffee.

"Got it, Pizza does not equal food." regurgitated Buffy placatingly.

"I'm serious Buffy, I will not be one of those mothers who gives their children diabetes by looking the other way while they live on junk food."

"Pizza can give you diabeties?" Buffy was only half joking now.

"Oh and I'll need you to swing by the post office for me, I'm expecting a package from your father." continued Joyce choosing to ignore Buffy's question rather than admit she didn't know the answer.

"Ew..."

"Buffy." Joyce said exasperatedly.

"Alright I'll go pick up dad's package."

"Ew." Joyce said, stunned by her own imagination.

"Mom!" Buffy exclaimed covering her ears.

The two decided it was a very good idea to get out of the house early and end the conversation as soon as possible.

Buffy headed off to school pedestrian style while her mom hopped in the mom-mobile and drove off toward Downtown Sunnydale.

The air was clear, the birds chipper and chirping. The white sidewalks and well paved roads ran in grid patterns on compass points with very little hill so at any given point you could see down to the end of each road. The trees were all placed in regular intervals, occasionally a cul-de-sac would appear at the end of a side road, but even these were clearly labeled, "Cul-de-sac Lane" "Cul-de-sac Street" "Cul-de-sac Cul-de-sac", so that no unsuspecting newcomer would get lost or be forced into the horror of having to drive around in a circle and retrace the same road.

Finally the high-school came into view. Buffy saw the throngs of class-mates following their own regular patterns of stalling outside until the last minute before the bell rang. Approaching at a quickened pace, the young woman looked around for two in particular... and there they were.

Willow Rosenburgh, a pretty, sensibly dressed young lady with medium length red hair, and Alexander (a.k.a. Xander) Harris, who at first appearance looked rather jockish, tall on muscular for his age, but on closer inspection turned out to be quite the opposite.

"Hey guys!" Buffy waved manically as her best friends spotted her and did the same.

"Omygodbuffydidyouseethenewscienceteacherscurriculum?!It'ssoamazingwefinallyget tolearnsomethingImeanIfeelbadaboutthelastscienceteacherbeingeatenbyagiantfrogwomanbut..." Willow rambled in excitement, clutching a textbook to her like a teddy-bear.

Buffy just looked at Xander and raised an eyebrow. "I thought we agreed no more caffeine for Willow until ever?"

"Will... breathe..." Xander said putting his hand on Willows shoulder.

"OhrightbreatheImean..." Willow paused and took an overly dramatic series of breaths. "Sorry, I'm justso excited about the new Biology teacher."

"Oh!... right... yeah that's that's great Will." Buffy tried to sound somewhat convincing, but didn't try very hard.

"You don't understand!" defended Willow "The new text-books were published LAST YEAR!"

Buffy looked at Xander for help. He just shrugged, wiping some of his dark hair out of his eyes and looking around for what Buffy was sure were boobs.

"Aren't our text-books normally published last year?" Buffy asked as the three headed inside the large high-school, which seemed to be modeled after the sets and locations used in the 90's teen drama Beverly Hills 90210.

Willow just grabbed Buffy's back-pack and unzipped it pulling out her history book _A war to end all wars. _"Look!" she said pointing inside the cover.

Buffy and Xander followed her finger to a little italic date that read '_1973'._

"1973!? I don't even know if my MOM was born in 1973!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Well it IS history... I guess." Said Xander.

Willow just threw up her hands either to express exasperation at Xander or agreement with Buffy or both.

The trio trotted to their lockers, trading backpacks for books and pencils as the bell rang then headed off to first period. American history couldn't keep anyone but Willows attention though Buffy noted that their homework was on a chapter entitled _The Dangers of Interracial Marriage._

Filing out at five till nine Buffy turned to mention the homework to Willow when a dark and insidious figure appeared before them in an Armani pant-suit and Gucci shoes.

"Hi Buffy, Willow... " Cordelia chase greeted them with a surprising amount of cheer, still making a point not to acknowledge Xander who made it a point to acknowledge her bust-line.

"Cordelia, you why the happy? One of your running mates for overdressed class bitch die?" Xander snided then added. "No one died did they?"

Cordelia just smiled placatingly and said. "Oh Xander your so funny!"

All three of them stared.

"Alright look, " Cordelia confided "... I don't like pretending to like you anymore than you do, so here's the deal, see that girl over there?"

Cordelia pointed over to the drinking fountain where a young girl with curly brown hair and freckles wearing a pair of faded jeans and a baseball t-shirt was pushing the button trying to get water and getting nothing but a familiar chugging noise.

"I've never seen her before." remarked Willow.

"Riiiiight that would be because she's new. Now normally my job as school social coordinator is to introduce her to people and show her around, but..." Cordelia looked over her shoulder to make sure the girl was still occupied "... I can't afford to be associated with the fashion challenged before the Sady Hawkins dance, so If you can all show a little school pride and pitch in for the good of everyone, you can introduce her to the rest of the freaks and losers and I don't have to get my reputation dirty. Everyones happy."

"Doesn't that just make you happy?" Willow pointed out.

"Exactly." Cordelia affirmed as though there were no distinction between the two. "Look just do this for me and I'll try to stop the rumor about you three being in the film-club."

"But you started that rumor!" cried Xander.

"I like the film-club." said Willow quietly.

Buffy cut in. "We'll do it alright Cordelia."

Willow and Xander gave Buffy rather scandalized looks. Cordelia brightened up.

"It's not for you though, it's for her."

"Good, glad to see at least one of you has a brain." Cordelia deliberated then bent in closer and said quietly "Honestly Buffy if you weren't a total freak I might even say hi to you in the hall sometimes."

"Thanks Cordy." Buffy quipped as the tall brunette strutted off self-importantly.

"Favors for Cordelia? Isn't that like making a deal with the devil?" asked Xander.

"No, I said it was for her, no one deserves six hours of having to listen to Cordelia talk about herself." Buffy stated firmly as she led her friends over to the drinking fountain and the curly haired brunette.

The girl looked up as they came closer.

"Hi I'm Buffy!" Buffy said exuberantly putting out her hand.

"Cordelia pawned me off on you huh?" said the Girl folding her arms and looking at them under half closed, suspicious eyes.

"Count yourself lucky." Buffy replied not missing a beat "I had to live through the ENTIRE cordelia welcoming parade when I started."

The girl considered this for a moment, then took Buffy's hand and shook it.

"What's your name?" Asked Willow after she and Xander introduced them-selves.

"Katheryne." said the girl smiling. "Katheryne Pryde. But everyone just calls me Kitty."


	2. Natural Selection

(I do not own Buffy or X-Ment)

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Chapter 2: Natural Selection

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"That's the lunch room, but we normally just eat lunch outside in the Quad." Buffy was taking Kitty all over the school between periods, so far they had most of there classes together, including Intermediate Biology which was beginning in about five minutes.

"It's such a big school for such a small town." remarked Kitty ponderously.

"Yeah Sunnydale's like that." chimed in Xander walking up behind them with Willow in toe looking very excited. "It's sort of like a bio-dome, you can find anything you might need in five square miles. They even have a slaughter-house out near the Highway on the south end."

"Really?" Kitty looked a little disturbed. "But I didn't see any farms when we..." She cut herself short receiving an odd look from Buffy Willow and Xander, but before they could ask what she was going to say the bell rang and the four filed themselves into the Biology classroom.

It was a small classroom with plaster walls and a low cieling, not quite as impressive as the chemistry classroom, the walls were lined with black and white pictures of various animal parts, or diagrams of molecules that Buffy couldn't even begin to name.

The students jossled in sporadically over the next five minutes, the usual groups, three jocks, a couple nerds, an emo or two and Cordelia.

Everyone began talking quietly waiting for the teacher to show up, since there was nothing more interesting to talk about they began gossiping about him.

"His name is Dr. Henry McCoy," said Willow in a low voice. Her eyes kept darting to the door, a mix of anxiety and giddiness dancing across her face resulting in a manic sort of grimace. "He's one of the worlds top geneticists, his research group won a Nobel prize working on something called the legacy molecule."

Nobody noticed, but Kitty seemed to be sinking into her chair.

"Why would someone like that be teaching High-School biology in Sunnydale?" whispered Buffy.

"Maybe he had too much fun in high-school and wanted to relive the gory daze." Xander quipped.

"That's what I was wondering." Willow replied to Buffy, her face finally settling on concerned. "I read his book and he's absolutely brilliant. You don't think?..." Willow looked around making sure no one else was listening.

"Mouth of hello-Sunnydale?" Buffy finished.

Willow nodded and Xander looked between the two of them.

Kitty rose a couple of subtle inches in her seat.

"Looks like we might have to pay attention in class today." said Buffy miserably but quietly.

Willow just glared as if insulted by the implication that she didn't normally pay very close attention in Biology including a system of color coded notes which she backed up on her laptop after writing notes on her notes in the margins of her notes, but Xander just said "Darn, I'm gunna miss my regular 45 minutes of sleep."

Willow glared at him. "Xander." she said motheringly.

"Yeah your right, there's always Trig." Xander pointed to the door as he spoke.

The door swung open and in walked an extremely muscular High-School Biology Teacher in a white lab coat and glasses. His long black hair was pulled back into a pony-tail and there was just the slightest five-o'clock shadow on his face which looked slightly blue in the harsh fluorescent-lighting of the cheaply maintained high-school classroom.

"Hello everyone, I trust you aren't too sorry I'm late as it's given you all much needed time to speculate." The man walked to the white board and wrote his name in very calligraphic-cursive. "My name is Dr. Henry McCoy, but for my duration at Sunnydale High you may call me Mr. McCoy, Teacher, Sir or Doctor."

Everyone looked around, the dread of the boring teacher arising on most faces.

"I will be introducing your class to The Theory of Evolution." stated Mr. McCoy opening a text book and a folder with some notes and standing behind his desk.

One of the girls in the front row with blond hair wearing a crucifix scoffed loudly but Dr. McCoy ignored her. "Would all of the most popular students in the class please stand." He said.

That got their attention. Cordelia stood up without blinking as did the Jocks making funny faces at each-other and attempting some bad physical humor while posturing. Most everyone else sort of half stood then sat, then looked at each-other as if they couldn't decide. Willow stayed seated and Kitty just sat there with a blank expression on her face but for a slight upturn of the side of her lip.

It took about two minutes but eventually half the class was standing tentatively looking around at eachother, while half the class was sitting looking confused or defiant.

"Good. What did we just demonstrate here." No one spoke, they just looked around at each-other questioningly. Willow eventually raised her hand.

"Yes Miss... " Mr. McCoy looked down at his notebook for a moment and thumbed through a couple pages ".... Rossenburgh?"

"Was it, Natural selection?" Willow asked hesitantly.

Dr. McCoy smiled "Right you are... or more precisely this was Artificial Selection but it will do for our purposes."

Putting down his book the teacher continued. "Natural selection is a process by which some members of a group are chosen over others to survive or mate. Now natural selection can seem rather harsh and ultimately eliminating. For example... Will all of the students currently standing who do not have blond hair please sit."

Cordelia made a face but sat, as did most of the brunette class, leaving only about five people, few of which she considered to be popular.

"You see, it works like sive, eliminating more and more individuals from the population each time it exerts it's power. It's inhumane, unfeeling and ruthless, hundreds of thousands of species, more than 90% of all species that have ever existed have fallen prey to it and are now extinct."

"In our little scenario, Natural selection chose the popular people to survive, then only the blonds, we could select for people with large noses, heavy eyebrows and soon we would probably be left without anyone and the class would be 'extinct'."

The blond with the crucifix (who was still standing) raised her hand.

"Yes miss... Dublauch?" Acknowledged Dr. McCoy.

"Then how can Evolution create new species? Doesn't that mean that no new species can come into existence?" she asked looking rather proud of herself.

"Excellent question. You see Evolution has many mechanisms and Natural selection is one of the most powerful, however one of the other primary mechanisms is it's offset without which life would never have existed... Would everyone with red hair please stand?" Dr. McCoy continued.

Only Willow stood up.

"Can anyone tell me what just occurred?"

No one answered so Willow rose her hand again. "Mutation?"

Dr. McCoy put one index finger on his nose and pointed the other at Willow. "Right again, the greatest balance against Natural Selection is Mutation, red hair was originally a mutation that arose in western Europe. Now will all of the blonds sit."

Now only Willow was standing, and she looked none-too-happy about it, neither did Cordelia.

Mr. McCoy continued "It is through mutation that species create diversity. Diversity is the power that fights Natural Selection and ensures a species survival. Without it all species would be doomed to extinction because just one selection pressure could wipe us out. Remember it is our great diversity that will give us our future, it is our differences that make us powerful. As you can see in this demonstration (though admittedly not perfect) had it not been for a mutant strain of DNA that resulted in red hair, the entire class would be extinct."

Willow went about as red as her hair.

"You may sit miss Rosenburgh." Smiled Mr. McCoy. "For your homework tonight I want you to do some research on the Internet and see if you can identify a mutant trait about yourself that has occurred in the last thirty-thousand years of your heritage, and I will point out that _everyone_ in this class has at least one."

Buffy rose an eyebrow at Willow and Willow just pointed to her pale face which Buffy interpreted as meaning cheeks but decided to wait till after class to ask how cheeks were mutant traits.

"For now please open your books to Chapter 4, _Selection Pressure and rates of Mutation._.."

The class opened the books without much noise, all of them (except Willow and Kitty) wondering what their mutant strain of DNA was.


	3. IntroTraction

(I do not own Buffy or X-Men)

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Chapter 3: Intro-traction

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The class was filing out, Willow was arguing with Buffy by her desk. Finally, with a determined look on her face Willow strode up to the front of the class and hesitantly waited for Dr. McCoy to look up from his paper work.

Shrugging, Buffy grabbed her bag and followed suit with Xander and Kitty in toe.

"Is there something you wanted to ask Miss Rosenburgh?" requested the teacher without looking up.

"Errr... I ummm... huh...." Willow began eloquently.

Mr. McCoy finally looked up and took off his glasses.

"I uhhhh....I...."

"Are you alright Miss Rosenburgh?" asked Mr. McCoy with one eyebrow raised.

"I... " Willow took a deep breath "I wanted to know why you're at Sunnydale High cus see I readyourbookandIknowyouwonanobelprizeandI'msure..."

"What Willow is trying to ask... " cut in Buffy "Is why someone with your uhhh credentials, is teaching at a high school, more specifically this high school." Buffy ended giving the teacher a completely unveiled suspicious look.

"Ah." Was all the teacher said.

Willows face went slightly the color of her hair.

"It's a legitimate question." asked Kitty from behind Buffy, a very subtle smirk on her face.

Mr. McCoy eyed Kitty for a moment before an equally mischievous look spread across his face. "Well yes it is, you see I moved to Sunnydale so my daughter could go to school here and we could get out of the big city for a while." The teacher gave Kitty a triumphant glance.

Kitty winced.

Buffy asked "Who's you're daughter?" But Willow had already put two and two together.

"Kitty? Dr. McCoy's your father?" stunned Willow.

"I.... err... Yes." re-stammered Kitty.

"Why didn't you say something?" Xander asked.

"Well you know... new girl, and I didn't wanna get a rep as being one of the teachers kids before I had a chance to ruin my social life for myself." Kitty explained darkly.

"Wait." Buffy started "If Dr. McCoy is your father, why is your last name Pryde?"

This seemed to trip both Kitty and the good Teacher for a moment before Kitty's eyes widened mischievously for a split second, and Mr. McCoys posture became very cautious as he studied his 'daughter'.

"Well you see... " said Kitty in a not so quiet voice "... Mr. McCoy is my dad, but I have two dad's, cus they're gay together, gay dad's and my biological fathers name is Logan Pryde, but they didn't change my last name for the sake of my egg donor."

Buffy Willow and Xander absorbed this explanation with a few stammered "Huh"'s but Mr. McCoy just lowered his eyes to slits, ground his teeth and stared at the curly brown haired jewish girl.

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Finally lunch rolled around and the four decided to eat together in the Quad.

"Thanks so much for hanging out with me today you guys, you know you don't have to if..." Kitty began.

"I know what you're going to say and don't." Buffy interjected.

"Yeah, we wouldn't hang with you if we didn't like you." Xander explained.

"Oh!" Said Willow apparently in a world all her own. "We've got Computer Lab together next period! You said you're into programming right?"

Kitty seemed to brighten up almost as much as Willow at the words 'Computer Lab'. "Yeah! My test scores said I'd get put in AP, I won't have to do any typing tests or something stupid like that will I?"

"Oh no, Miss Calander is cool, she basically lets me work on my own stuff in lab..." Willow cut herself short, glancing around for a faculty member who might have hurt her and looking rather guilty.

"Neat, think you can show me what you're doing?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah, it's mostly encryption deciphering stuff." Willow looked guilty again.

"Awesome! I've been working on this program that rewrites the base code of a site based on the browser interface... maybe you could give me some pointers! :D" Kitty confided exuberantly.

The first half of the lunch hour was spent with the two CS nerds chatting up a storm in what sounded like a foreign language to Buffy and Xander, then at 11:30 Kitty looked at her watch. "Oh! I have to stop by the library before next period!" she exclaimed, "Can one of you guys show me where it is?"

Buffy, Xander, and Willow gave each-other significant looks then said "Sure I'll take you!" in unison.

"Well that was very pod-people." Kitty blanched.

"Oh don't mind us, we're just friends with the Librarian." Covered Willow expertly.

"Giles, he's very British." explained Xander to no one in particular.

They headed off as a foursome getting a sneer from a passing troop of harmonies ("If there have to be people that un-cool, at least they have other uncool people to hang out with") then down the many halls which all looked the same and ended finally at two large swinging doors.

Kitty stepped into the large library behind her new friends, this part of the school seemed like much more care had been put into it over the years, even the architecture with the spiraling steps, the raised rooms, the dome shaped ceiling, it gave the impression of having been built previously and the rest of the school sort of hap-hazardly stacked on top of, and around it, much later.

She heard a voice coming from somewhere ahead, it _was_very British.

"Ah Buffy, I'm glad you're here. I found some more information on this Halkethian demon and I was wondering if you could give a descr.... " the voice trailed off rather abruptly as Buffy and Xander began making half veiled slicing motions across their necks with their index fingers.

"GILES YOU'RE SO FUNNY!" Willow practically yelled. "CALLING THE HISTORY TEACHER A HALKETHIAN DEMON HA! HA! HA!"

Xander cut into the forced laughter, "Giles have you met our new student?" Xander said, stepping aside and leading Kitty forward by the elbow.

Willow bent over and seemed to be fighting a panic attack as Kitty stepped forward and extender her hand to the _very_British looking man who had just put back on his glasses after giving them a good long cleaning with a silk hankerchief.

Giles didn't miss a beat. "Ah, very nice to meet you Miss...? "

"Pryde." answered Kitty shaking his hand.

"Rupert Giles, charmed." said Giles returning the handshake.

"I'm sure." Kitty smiled innocently.

"Might I ask you to keep that whole bit about the Halkathian demon quiet, Really Mr. Jannkins is a very nice man." Giles asked.

"Sure, I don't even know what a Halkathian Demon is." Kitty went along.

"Actually the history teacher is Mrs. Hart." Willow interjected. "Mr. Jannkins you know... moved on last week."

Kitty looked between the recovered Willow and the Characaturishly-British Librarian.

"Oh... oh yes that's right." muttered Giles looking rather somber.

The uncomfortable silence that followed lived up to both it's description and name so Kitty offered... "I need my Computer Science book."

"Oh, yes of course." Giles exclaimed, snapping out of his rumination and heading back behind the desk to retrieve the required items.

While he was sorting through a stack of books Kitty looked around the room, noting an open book with a strange passage on the main table in the center, then eyeing the 'book cage' suspiciously.

"So what happened to Mr. Jannkins?" she asked.

Buffy Willow and Xander gave eachother that same significant look which was becoming their staple in the new students opinion.

"Mr. Jannkins died last week." said Buffy somberly. "I liked him, he wasn't evil."

"Well he was boring. But yeah, not evil boring." added Xander.

"Oh. Sorry... what happened?" Kitty pressed tentatively.

Another group look.

"The police say he was attacked by a dog or something. Bit him on the neck." Willow explicated just before Giles returned with a few books for Kitty.

After a very stale goodbye Kitty headed off to Computer Science with Willow while Buffy marched toward history with Xander.

Kitty debated internally for a quiet few minutes, then just as she was sitting down next to Willow and booting up her computer she turned and asked "Willow do you ever wonder if there's something weird going on at this school?"

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**Thanks everyone for the many reviews: Hopefully this chapter has answered some questions about the nature of Kitty and Beast, though not explicitly. A lot of introduction in the first three, but I feel like that's important for later interactions to not feel forced.**

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	4. Hunny I'm Home!

**((I do not own Buffy or X-Men))**

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**Chapter 4: "Hunny, I'm home!"**

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"It's like that coffee shop on Friends only with alcohol and a band and occasionally people of color." Willow was describing The Bronze to Kitty after Buffy had cordially invited her to join them for a little R&R her first day in sunnydale. There was something about Kitty that Buffy liked but she couldn't put her finger on it. Willow had a little more in common with the curly-haired teenager from what Buffy had managed to glean thus far. Still Kitty had a sensibility to her that made her seem a little old for her age, something Buffy was very familiar with.

"Yeah, I just gotta stop by my house, and get permission you know." Kitty accepted.

"Sure, we can meet there at 8. Any earlier and you look like a loser." Xander commented. "Not that I would know cus I've never been there before eight, I'm naturally cool like that."

"Procrastination equals cool now?" Buffy asked sardonically.

"Being late is the coolest." Xander retorted. "Ask any super-hero."

Everyone gave xander a blank stare.

"Well they never show up BEFORE they need to save the day. You never see batman hanging around a dark alley waiting for someone to get mugged." Xander explicated.

Kitty shook her head dissaprovingly, "Lazy Dark Knight, doesn't he know timelyness is next to goddlyness?"

Xander beamed approvingly.

"Maybe if he made his presence more known you know." Buffy pondered "I mean like, have Bat-men and they could hang out all over gotham."

"Then he'd just be police." Xander chided.

Alright I should get going, thanks for showing me around!" Kitty picked up her bag and waved as she headed off down the paved sidewalk.

"I like her." Xander said happily.

"Yeah, too bad her parents moved her here." Buffy agreed darkly.

"Don't the gays have special senses like dogs or something?" Xander asked, half-joking. "Like shouldn't they have known better?"

"A helmouthdar?" Buffy tried the word. "Helldar... Mouthdar..."

"THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING GAY!" Willow suddenly blurted out of no-where.

Xander and Buffy jumped, looking around instinctively for some unseen danger.

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The three story, rented, track-home stood on the corner of one of the neighborhoods many streets named after one of the neighborhoods many street names. It had just as many doors as you would expect in a track home. Lots of windows with very even spacing. A well-manicured lawn with a single blemish, a small indentation near the mailbox caused by the absence of a "FOR RENT" sign.

Yes this house was certainly very house-like. Why it even had a garage, a driveway, a roof, and many many layers of paint.

The inside of the house was decorated in white plaster walls and ceilings, off-white carpet, the kitchen had tile floors as did the bathroom. The refrigerator was steel and the cupboards, just for a touch of elegance, were made of wood.

The front door swung open and an energetic teenager bounced inside. "HUNNY! I'm HOooOOOOOoooME!"

Much to her surprised disenfranchised teenage mind Kitty pride was immediately answered by a voice from the kitchen, first door down the entrance hall to her left. "Oh good, come in here sweetie! I want you to try something!"

The voice was male with a very soft edge that sounded perfectly natural.

Kitty cautiously approached the doorway and peaked inside. She saw an apron-clad man bent over an open oven, the kitchen was immaculate with the slight exception of a recipe book sat amidst a well organized collection of ingredients.

"Logan?!? (o.0)" Kitty emoted.

The clean-shaven man stood up perkily, tilted his head to one side and smiled. "Well there you are, pumpkin. Try a cookie for me I'm working on this recipe."

Kitty suspiciously took a cookie from the tray and tasted it. It was actually pretty good, "Pumpkin?" she asked after a moment.

"With poppy-seeds." Logan responded.

"No. What you said I mean." Kitty corrected grabbing another cookie.

"Oh well, I'm your father aren't I?" Logan said taking off his oven mitts.

Kitty scowled. "I said you were gay I didn't say you were Martha Stewart."

"I can't be both?"

Kitty huffed. "Aren't you being a little offensive?"

"Well... " Logan thought a moment "... yeah, you're right, the cookies are good but I'm no Martha Stewart."

Kitty just huffed again. "Fine." She sat down promptly at the Kitchen table and began pulling school-books out of her bag.

Logan grabbed some glasses, a bottle, some herbs and a pitcher of pink lemonade out of the refrigerator. Pouring Kitty a glass, he joined her at the table. "So, tell me about your first day, make any friends?"

Kitty eyed him over her books. "If you're subtly referring to my mission, yes, I did, and I can't confirm anything one way or the other. The summers girl seems to be pretty level headed, and smarter than she lets on. Miss Rosenburgh is a genius, but that doesn't really mean anything, and their friend... well he's just a bit strange. But nothing to make him a target for anyon.... Logan WHAT are you making?"

The older man looked up at her with a twinkle in his eye as he stuffed mint leaves into his glass, poured a clear liquid over them and began stirring and crushing the mixture together with a thin glass pestle. "A mojito. It's what they drink in California, I got the recipe from Mrs. Kravits next door."

"You drink beer."

Logan just smiled and kept mixing. "I'd offer you one but you're a bit young don't you think?"

Kitty just shook her head. "I've been invited to go to a club with them tonight. Is that alright with you and papa?" Kitty asked sarcastically.

"Oh fine fine, just no alcohal, and be home by eleven." Logan smiled innocently. "It's a school night."


	5. On the Town

**((I do not own Buffy or the X-Men))**

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**Chapter 5: "On the town"**

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She walked alone down the lamp-lit streets checking signs and a map periodically for direction. Had she known better, she wouldn't have. But she didn't know that her behavior marked her like a red halo, she looked a lot like prey.

Kitty stopped at a corner leading toward a long side-street. The bronze was just two blocks away according to her map, so she tucked it into her back pocket and walked briskly down the alley.

A loud noise, she jumped. A black cat crossed her path and mewed at her as her heart slowed back to it's regular pace.

"Cats." she rolled her eyes at herself. Sunneydale wasn't New-York, it was a quiet little suburb, a suburb with a surprising amount of industry but a suburb none-the-less.

_Thump thumpa thump, thumpa thump thumpa thumpathumpa..._

The music led her toward her destination. Audible from a block away in the business district, she followed the pounding rhythm to another back alley-way. There was a door with a sign over it that read "Bronze" but no security guard or line to get in. Well... how crowded did she expect it to be in a small town on a Thursday night?

Kitty covered half the alley in a few strides before the hair on the back of her neck began to tingle. Someone was watching her.

She pretended to drop something and looked around, checking behind her in the reflection of an old hub-cap. No one.

_"Really kitty, your getting downright paranoid, get a grip on yours..." _her thoughts were jolted from her mind as a strong hand grabbed the back of her neck and slammed her face-first into a wall.

Kitty tried to cry out but another strong hand reached around and covered her mouth, then her assailant turned her forcefully around.

It was a woman, dark haired and beautiful, but ever so pale. She held kitty against the wall easily, fixing her with a hungry, seductive stare.

Kitty bit down hard on the hand over her mouth but the woman didn't budge, she just smiled. Kitty had the distinct impression she may have enjoyed it.

"Ahhhh... " said the woman "...A fighter... I love it when the try to fight..."

The woman leaned in close and licked Kittie's ear. Kitty winced at the intimacy of it.

"Do me a favor darling..." the woman purred "... scream for me won't you?"

Kitty tried to scream, she honestly did, as the woman flung her head back, her face distorting into that of a cruel fanged creature with horrid yellowed eyes.

The woman-thing leaned forward, her mouth open and salivating. Kitty closed her eyes tight. The woman bit down. Then cried out.

"I BIT MMMA TONGUE!" she stammered as she stepped back covering her now bleeding mouth.

Another figure appeared behind Kitties assailant as she dropped to the ground massaging her unblemished throat.

"HWW DID YOU DOO THT!" the woman ranted in shock.

Then, it seemed almost dreamlike. A piece of wood stuck out through the woman-creatures chest, she screamed the horrific terrified scream of the dying, then exploded into a shower of crumbling dust shaped like a human skeleton.

Kitty skittered back against the wall, reaching around for something to use as a weapon. The shadowy figure stepped forward through the dust.

Kitty tried not to wince, reminding herself to keep her head.

A hand reached out toward her in a gesture of aid. Kitty waited a moment, reminding herself to breath... then hesitantly took the hand.

It was cold, strong, but very cold. The figure helped her to her feet, and, still holding her hand gently, stepped into the light.

It was a man, a beautiful man in a black trench-coat, his eyes were piercing and his gaze seemed to be going right through her into her very soul.

Kitty shuddered and the man released her hand, stepping backward reflexively. He was turning to leave.

"W... wait... " Kitty stuttered. "... I... what was that?"

The man didn't speak at first, just fixed her with his piercing eyes for a minute. Finally the deep melancholy voice lilted toward her "Do you really want to know?"

Kitty thought about it for a second, then nodded.

"A vampyre."

Kitty felt like sitting down again. After a moment she brushed the hair out of her face and asked "Who are you?"

The man paused for a second time. "A vampyre."

There was a wooshing sound and the shadowy figure was gone.

Kitty stood in the alley for a few minutes before turning to the door and the thumpa thumpa. All of a sudden inside felt like a good place to be, and she had a strange longing for the streets of New York City.

******************************************

**A shorty but a goody. Sorry for the lag in update :D**


	6. Social Light

**((I do not own Buffy or the X-Men))**

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**Chapter 5: "Social-Light"**

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"It's like they want us to hate this stuff..." Xander was saying as the mouse-brown haired girl approached the small group around the table.

"... like they got together and came up with the most boring subject they could teach and then tried to figure out the dullest way to teach it." Xander finished looking at his open trigonometry book the way one would examine an optical illusion painting.

"Well looking at it cross-eyed isn't going to make it more comprehensable." chided Willow beside him as she chewed on the end of a pen, a notebook with several mathematical formulas on it in her lap.

Buffy gave xander a look of solidarity as he leaned back and sighed dejectedly, then noticing Kitty she code-switched to social-mode.

"Hey! Glad you made it... are... are you alright?" Buffy's enigmatic smile faltered as she saw Kitty's pale face and shocked expression.

Kitty sat down abruptly. "Yes. Yes I'm fine. Just ummm... no, fine."

The girl looked around rather dreamily at the others for a moment, all of which were watching her scrutinously.

"I'll get you a drink." said Xander, happy at the opportunity for procrastination.

"Did you find the place ok?" Willow asked suspiciously.

"Which place?" Kitty asked coming out of her momentary stupor... "Oh yes yes. The bronze." Looking around as if for the first time she added "It's nice, I like the band, I think I saw them at a coffee shop in New York once."

"Wow... they're hipper than I thought." Buffy commented looking over at the musicians playing an upbeat alternative grunge melody. The singer, a young woman with long blond hair seemed to exude confidence. Buffy thought she caught the woman looking her squarely in the eye for a moment.

Xander returned with a diet-cherry-coke for Kitty who accepted it graciously and asked if she owed him anything which he flatly refused.

After taking a sip the young woman seemed to perk up and become a bit more alert.

"So this is the Sunnydale hangout? IT's not bad for..." Kitty hesitated.

"For a small suburb in the middle of nowhere's county?" finished Xander. "No I guess we're lucky not to have to resort to cow-tipping... although..."

"That's horrible Xander." Willow remarked. "Why would anyone do that to a cow, it's like those weird kids who pull the wings off flies or burn ants under a magnifying glass."

"Yeah... tshhh... weirdos..." Xander agreed guiltily.

Buffy and Kitty exchanged a look and suppressed simultaneous chuckles as Willow went into a quickly delivered wordy schpeel about animal cruelty.

A dark shadow spread over the table just as Willow began talking about lab-testing on chimpanzees

"Championing Xanders civil rights again?" the voice cut the air like a knife as the figure of a very well proportioned brunette in a stylish skirt/blouse combination intruded on the unwitting social niceties.

"Ah Cordilia! I thought I heard the screams of tortured souls being sucked into your abyss." Xander countered.

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Xander while Cordilia gave him a condescending albeit-pittying look and Willow mouthed the word "Abyss?"

Kitty turned in her seat finally, addressing the taller brunette. "Did you want something?"

"Actually I came over here to tell Buffy that I saw her librarian looking for her." Cordelia looked away from the group as if to give the impression she wasn't really talking to them but stating a fact to no one in particular.

Buffy gave her friends a significant look then scanned the club before getting up. "Thanks Cordelia." she said as she wondered into the thrall in search of giles. Cordelia merely shrugged and sauntered off to a group of football players trying to swindle alcohol out of the bar-tender.

After a moment of pointed silence Kitty asked "So is... is... I mean..."

"What?" asked Xander remembering their third wheel.

"Is... I mean are Buffy and the Librarian like..." Kitty gave a slight tilt of the head.

"OH GOD!" "Ew and No and EWWW!!" exclaimed Willow and Xander.

"No Giles is just a ummm, close friend of the family... " Willow explicated unconvincingly.

"Uh... right." Kitty conceded looking around to see Buffy speaking to an urgent looking Giles in a shadow by the stairs.

"That's it." Xander stated with finality, slamming his book shut "I'm officially incapable of doing homework for the rest of the night on account of mental grossness."

"Excuser." Willow chided.

A moment later Buffy re-appeared looking slightly discombobulated. She explained quickly that there was a problem with Giles's friend that she needed to help him with.

Feeling rather like a fourth wheel now Kitty jumped up gratefully at the vibration from her cell-phone and excused herself.

A soft-familiar male voice came from the receiver. "Katheryne?"

"Speaking." said kitty keeping an eye on the trio as they began speaking excitedly in hushed voices.

"You're target is close-by." the voice stated bluntly.

"Understood. Anything else?" Kitty asked tossing her hair as to give the air of a vacuous conversation.

"Yes, their power is active, do you see anything?"

Kitty scanned the room quickly not seeing anything out of the ordinary. "No. Whatever it is, it is doesn't have any obvious visible manifestation."

"I will keep you posted if anything comes up."

"Copy that. Shadowcat out." Kitty hung up the phone and moved back to the group all of whom looked as if they were about to leave.

"Sorry Kitty, something came up with a friend and we really have to get going." Willow offered as she approached.

"No no it's fine, my parents didn't want me out too late anyway, I know they'll get worried." Kitty assured.

The trio gave kitty their farewells with many "We'll make this up to you"'s and stalked off toward the back door of the club with the waiting librarian.

Kitty made herself look busy checking something in her purse until she was sure they were out of site, then made a b-line for the back door preparing for a stealthy pursuit.

It might have seemed to big a coincidence in an objective perspective, but Kitty's instincts told her that there was something peculiar about her new friends, and that was as good a place as any to start looking for the omega class mutant.


	7. Stalk

**Chapter 7: "Stalk"**

"It's not here giles."

"It was."

"Well it's not anymore."

A street. A car parked in the dead of night, old and paint-chipped. The quartet surveyed from within the rusty frame, waiting for the inevitable.

"I'm telling you there's a pattern Buffy." the older British gentleman reiterated for a dozenth time.

"I believe you Giles... " Buffy retorted, not turning her gaze from the houses lining the street "... but there's nothing happening here, streets all quiety."

*Crunch CRUNCH CRUNCH*

Three bodies in the car jumped simultaneously, then snapped "Xander!"

"Wha? ahm humry?" Xander defended from the back-seat, reaching into the bag of Funions for another hand-full of salted fat-rings.

"Funions aren't stealth food!" Willow whispered harshly.

"Giles is out of Twinkies." Xander continued.

"I don't eat Twinkies." Giles hissed, looking scandalized.

"Ah's *CRUNCH* whut ahm sayim!"

After a long while in which Buffy took Xanders bag of Funions away and was just about to indulge herself, the blond-ex-cheerleader-turned-monster-exterminator let out a little gasp and stared at the roof of a tall track-house on the other side of the road from the one they'd been surveying. Everyone else held their breath.

"What is it?" asked Willow, clutching the sleeves of her hoody like a life-preserver.

"It's... I'm not sure, " Buffy said slowly, still staring at the large grey house. "I thought I saw someone on the roof."

* * *

"Yeah, they're just sitting in the car still. It looks like they're on a stake-out or something."

The mousy-haired girl perched on a rooftop, crouching against a chimney as she surveyed the scene through her five thousand dollar night-vision integrated binoculars.

A little com-static broke through her ear-piece until a deep/soft voice responded. "Well I'll hand it to you, there is something fishy about your new friends. Three teenagers hanging out with their school librarian at night is far enough off the grid, but the under-cover cop-bit pushes it from strange to down-right suspicious."

"Suspicious, albeit boring." Kitty replied, her right hand held to her ear-piece.

"What's your move Shadow-cat? This is your mission remember, we're just along for support." the voice nudged.

Kitty watched the the car, and the house on the opposite side of the street from her for a minute, pondering her options. At length she tapped her ear-piece.

"I'm going to go do some recon." said the young woman as she stood up, storing her expensive goggles in her pack. "We can't do anything until we know more of what they're up to."

The girl climbed atop the protruding chimney, her silhouette barely visible against the darkened sky. She breathed in and out, deeply three times then spread her arms and dove forward into the chimney, disappearing like a shadow into darkness.

Holding her breath, she dropped silently, the hearth of the fireplace rushing up at her until she slipped through it. She allowed herself to drop further, now completely blind, she felt the familiar sensation of matter passing through her body, a slight humming in her mind. She passed through the foundation of the house then slowed her decent, reaching her mind out through her limbs she altered the polarity in the bottom of her hands and feet. The girl crouched in the solid earth then pushed off forward, gliding through the dirt like a marine mammal through water. It was all about timing.

She let the earth ahead pass through her while maintaining a slight polarity beneath her to keep from falling. It had taken months of training to perfect this application of her innate abilities. She had more than once nearly killed herself, or passed out from lack of oxygen. Her honed senses now gave her a precise intuition about her sub-teranian speed and a near photographic memory for geography. Once she felt she had traveled enough Kitty altered the electromagnetic fields of her molecules, her density feint but just enough for her to float easily upward through the thick ground.

50 seconds without oxygen.

* * *

The basement was still and dark. Grey light shone in from the street through the cob-webbed port windows near the ceiling. Boxes were stacked in various hap-hazard heaps along the walls and a thick layer of dust coated the room.

A gloved hand reached up through the floor. Grabbing hold of the solid concrete for leverage the girl pulled herself upward into the dimly lit room. As soon as her upper torso was clear she breathed in deeply, though quietly, fighting to keep from gasping. She crouched silently, surveying the basement for any signs of life before reaching into her pack and putting back on her night-vision goggles.

After about a minute of waiting and listening for sounds of movement from above, Kitty began looking around the boxes. She found pictures (the family who lived here looked like zombie clones from the Norman Rockwell-verse), paraphernalia, trophies, Christmas decorations (damn Santa and all of his works)... in a word, boxes of pure boring.

Finally she decided to chance a look upstairs. She crossed her fingers, headed up stairs, and passed silently through the locked cellar door.

Dark hallways met her on the other side and Kitty was thankful for at least one part of the occupants obnoxious normalcy, the hours they kept. Eleven O'clock and all's quiet.

The young woman crept slowly, walking several paces and looking around then standing stalk still, taking a breath, and continuing on. One major stealth perk of her phasing gift was that by walking on air she made no sound. She'd been experimenting with phasing in and out parts of her body by themselves without half of her dropping away and having to deal with that being dead thing. She started with her hair of course and had saved a lot of money on haircuts until she finally got the knack of gradiating the phase along it so that while one end of a strand of hair had the electromagnetic polarity that allowed it to pass through matter, the other end was impermeable by solid material. Theoretically she could get to a point where she could phase her lungs just slightly enough to pick up oxygen when she was above ground and wouldn't need to keep toggling her immaterial state to breath, but that was not a technique she was going to rush into for fear of accidentally dropping a couple vital organs in the process of perfecting it. Everything about her gift seemed dangerous to the young woman sometimes, and it wasn't a seldom night that she'd woken up in a sweat after a recurring nightmare in which she was featured dropping off the face of the earth.

As she made her way through the kitchen (which, Kitty noted, was identical to the one she and her "Parents" had in the track-house they'd set up in) the young woman scanned the scene for any identifying information, anything out of place that could explain the strange behavior of her new "friends."

Kitty was morosely considering that all of her relationships seemed to need quotations around them these days when she turned a corner onto a den and found what she'd (apparently) been looking for, causing her to immediately vomit, and regret the search.

Two adults, draped over furniture, and draped being in the literal. Strings of flesh lay like yarn on a spindle, intestines hung above them like garlands. The bodies bent over backwards on the love-seat. Their stomachs and much of their epidermal layer flayed open. Their faces staring at her upside down, mouths agape, eyes wide... and...

... they were alive.


	8. Disturbed

**Chapter 8: "Disturbed"**

Time seemed to slow down.

Something in Kitties brain said, "This is not real, this is too disturbing to be real."

Something else in her brain countered "Disturbing? Is that really the word you're going to use her? 'Disturbing?' Not 'Horrifying', not 'Tragic', not 'Sick?' But, 'disturbing?' Because the worst part of this is that 'the position or arrangement of the room has been altered by these inconvenient bodies and as such upset the tranquility of the space?"

Then another thing in her brain admonished, "Don't be so damn literal!" and "Is that really the most pertinent element to be criticising right now, the TERM you're using to interperate the situation?"

Then another thing, entirely outside her brain hit her.

The external time-line went something more like this:

Katheryn pride walked in on the 'disturbing' scene of a man and a woman eviscerated, mutilated and garnished upon a love-seat. The most 'disturbing' aspect of this was that both individuals seemed to be entirely alive. Their heads were tilted back and upside down where they'd been slung over the furniture. Their eyes were wide, mouths open, and they were making a sort of rasping/hoarse noise as though they were trying to scream but couldn't seem to get enough air-pressure through their throats (this was probably due to the fact that their stomachs and part of their chests were ripped open, their intestines and other organs strung out to the chandelier above them, draped like some sort of morbid garlands).

Kitty halted, surveying the scene, she couldn't seem to speak and she was frantically trying to gather and organize her thoughts, fighting off paralyzing horror with deconstruction when she heard something move behind her.

Instinctively she phased, whoever her assailant was she or he would touch nothing but air, or so her instincts told her.

Wham!

She fell to... or rather through, the floor and heard a howl of shock and pain that wasn't hers and wasn't entirely human either.

She managed to orient her bearings just in time to stop herself from falling through the basement floor as well. She phased in, trying to breath both heavily and quietly at the same time, listening for any sound of...

She wasn't alone. Someone or something had fallen into the basement with her, she was sure of it, she could hear it breathing. A rattling noise gathered behind her and she turned a second too late to see it, but she distinctly heard it scuttling upstairs.

... upstairs... the people, rather the victims were still up there.

She had to call an ambulance, she had to do something or they were going to die like that, or maybe worse, they were going to get stuck like that. Those poor norman rockwanabes with their white track home and their two point five ki...

"Oh my god." she said alloud. And any thought of fear or disorientation or 'disturbing' scenes immediately vanished from conscious thought. The children were probably still here, upstairs, and if it had... if they were...

Kitty shut her eyes, feeling anxiety, and desperation, and horror... and... rage.

She turned to face upward, crouched on the basement floor like a cat, and leapt. Altering her phase quickly so she was less dense than oxygen, she shot upward through the basement, through the first floor ceiling and into the hallway of the second story.

She shifted her density quickly, feeling a bit of a g-force effect, but kept her head, landing cat-like on the carpeted floor and listening intently.

For a minute all was quiet, then she heard someone very small, crying.

She turned and ran through the wall and found herself in a small room where two children sat in a corner near a twin bed with a wooden unicorn-shaped frame. The couples' daughter (who looked to be about seven years old, had short black hair and wore a baseball-uniform styled pajama-outfit) was holding her younger brother trying to sooth him. The boy was about four and had sandy brown hair, he wore a one-piece pajama suit with a unicorn on the front.

Both children were stuck in the corner. Covered in a strange glowing white glueish sludge that covered their feet up to their shoulders.

The girl looked up at Kitty and her red/swollen eyes told that they had cried out long ago.

Kitty put a finger to her lips to keep the girl from yelling in shock. She moved to the children cautiously, listening around her and making as little sound as possible. When she reached them, she knelt down, reached out hesitantly and tried to move the adhesive material surrounding them, but her unphased hand stuck to it.

Katheryn roled her eyes at herself and phased her hand. "Ouch!"

There was a bright spark as the white strands fell away from the children's shoulders. She looked down at her hand resisting the urge to suck her fingers, there were clear burn marks. She looked at the children afraid she might have hurt them, but they seemed completely uneffected. Well, that was something.

The boy had stopped crying. That was something else.

The girl pointed, eyes wide, over Kitties shoulder. She started to mouth the words "Behind you!" but only got as far as "Behi..." before something hit Kitty on the right and knocked her like a rag doll up against the wall to her left.

She was dazed for a moment as she slumpt back toward the ground, but she got a glimpse of what had hit her.

It was crouched over, clearly too tall for the ceiling. It had a humanoid body, but the limbs were elongated and the legs bent backward. It was hard to see in detail as it seemed to be emitting a dark cloud of smoke around itself, and what she could see of it was semi-translucent. The skin was pale white, the mouth seemed to be too large for the jaw and hung down as though it were unhinged, barring rows of oddly flexible teeth that moved like sea anemones.

But the eyes were the most disturbing element of it's visage. They were human. Utterly human. They looked compassionate, caring, inviting. They were not translucent at all and if she hadn't known better she'd have thought they looked regretful.

It was the eyes that made her hessitate, just long enough for the creature to raise it's elongated arm and slash down at the girl, cutting her hard accross the shoulder.

The girl screamed. And kitty moved.

It seemed as though contact with her in phased form hurt this creature as much as her, almost like their molecules were opposingly polarized but on opposite spectrum's which made them both intangible to regular matter. She contemplated leaping through it to see what would happen and then decided on one better..

The creature raised it's arm again, it's mouth learing, it's eyes sorrowful, and kitty lept to the wall, grabbing the unicorn-twin bed.

She phased and shoved the bed forward into the creature.

There was a deafening explosion, half the bed was gone. Kitty turned in the force of the blast, not looking back. She jumped for the children, phasing through their bindings which sparked and seared her skin. She grabbed one in each arm and spun with them through the wall of the second story, away from the explosion, the horror, and the cries of pain, out into open air.


	9. Extract

**Chapter 9: "Extract"**

She smelled earth and grass and leaves. Openning her eyes she saw the a pale midnight sky, the lights from the streets and the cloudlayer blocking out most of the stars.

She rolled over and caughed, her side ached and she winced as a pain in her head made it'self known.

She seemed to be holding something. Two somethings, they were sort of fleshy and squirmed and made the oddest little noises.

There was a rushing of sound as her brain seemed to jump start her awareness. Her conscious mind raced for a moment, catching up with her as though it had been operating a minute behind, it sped through memories and thoughts and fears. An explosion, the open air, then a crash against something leafy and falling.

"Where's mommy?"

The voice came out of one of the squirmy things, the smaller one with the unicorn on it's front.

"Wake up..." nudge nudge.

The other fleshy thing was nudging against her vice-like protective grip around it.

"Oh!" she exclaimed and let go of the two, sitting back on her heels. The fleshy things were children and she was Katheryne Pride. And they were escaping...

Kitty looked around quickly, her movements now purposefull, it was all coming back. Yes, she was protecting these children. She tried to get her bearings.

They were in a dimly lit yard. A backyard apparently as it was enclosed on three sides within a tall wooden fence. The large track house that made up the fourth wall of the enclosure stood silently, ominously peaceful. Kitty turned to inspect the children.

"Are you alright?" She asked as she looked them over briefly for broken bones or serious injuries. They seemed to have faired fairly well. A few cuts and bruises and some torn pajamas and, oh yes some burn marks. She noticed her hands too were quite singed like she'd dipped them briefly in very hot water.

"W...we're fine." replied the little girl, putting an arm around her brother to comfort him. "Aren't you hurt?"

Kitty was now looking around for some sign of the creature, but the nightmarish ghoul was either dead or had decided not to show it'self.

"No, I'm alright..." Kitty replied off-hand, "Just bumped my head and my side aches a bit..." As she said this she put a hand to her right mid-torso and winced, nearly doubling over in pain.

Kitty looked down cautiously... yep... that was a small branch sticking into her... and yes she was bleeding. Her head began to spin, whether from the realisation of the wound or from it's sudden burst of pain when she'd touched it or possibly just a delayed effect from the lack of blood. She slumped down on her left and bit her lip to keep from crying out, drawing blood there too. She looked around trying to focus her eyes '_keep your head in the game kitty!' _she snapped at herself.

Finally she saw what she was after, her pack lying next to the tree they must have slammed into when they were blasted out of the second story.

"Mmm... my pack." she managed, pointing with one hand, the other now applying pressure to her wound.

The little boy didn't respond, he seemed to have noticed the little bit of branch sticking out of her at the same time she had. This had the side-effect of keeping him finally quiet, but he moved with his sister and helped her pull the black back-pack over to their would-be savior.

Kitty fumbled with the pack with her free hand, finally pulling out the spare com. She pressed down on the speak button and rasped into it with surprising effort "This is Shadowcat... requesting emergency extraction... I repeat..."

Then everything went black.


End file.
